View full sizeThe OregonianThe cities of Tualatin and West Linn are opposing state and Metro plans to designate the Stafford area east of Tualatin for future urbanization. The cities' appeal is one of nine around the three-county area that will now go before the Oregon of Appeals for adjudication.

What was supposed to be a new way for mapping growth in the metro region is looking a lot like the appeals-plagued past.

The deadline for filing appeals to a state agency's growth plan has brought at least nine appeals focusing on six different areas of Washington, Clackamas and Multnomah counties.

Officials were still sorting through the appeals Wednesday, a task made more difficult because the initial filings only indicated an objection to the plan's August 14 formal written order.

Metro, the regional planning agency that submitted the plan, is also named as a defendant in the appeals.

The plan outlines which lands outside the current urban growth boundary should be considered first for future urban development and which should be maintained for rural uses through 2060.

The new map for guiding growth was supposed to get away from the court-laden squabbles that slowed the former process, which required Metro to assess every five years whether growth boundaries were adequate to maintain a 20-year supply of land to accommodate projected population and employment demands.

Toward that aim, the Oregon Legislature in 2007 approved a bill replacing the five-year review requirement with one identifying future urban and rural uses out half a century.

The law stemming from that bill includes an expedited process for handling appeals, meaning things may not drag on nearly as long as appeals in the past.

However, it clearly was not sufficient to stop appeals of the new process altogether.

The cities of Tualatin and West Linn, for instance, filed a joint appeal, arguing that LCDC and Metro erred by including the rolling Stafford area east of Tualatin as an urban reserve.

"When we looked at the numbers associated with building transportation infrastructure there, we concluded it's just not viable for either of us to serve that area," said Sherilyn Lombos, Tualatin's city manager. "It would be very complicated and very expensive for any city to serve an urban Stafford."

Several parties are appealing the rural reserve designation stamped on the so-called "Springville L," an L-shaped parcel of land in western Multnomah County.

Farther south, across the Willamette River in Clackamas County, brothers Chris and Tom Maletis are contesting the continued rural reserve designation on land they own around Langdon Farms Golf Club near Aurora.

In Washington County, one group is challenging the designation of property near Rock Creek as an urban reserve.

"It's a tremendous resource area, but they want to use it for a road," said Cherry Amabisca, who helped filed the appeal. "Switching it to urban makes no sense."